October - Rest and Relaxation

For the last few months I've talked about how crazy our lives have been. This month however, was a nice break from the constant rush. Don't get me wrong, we were busy, but it was a different type. Here's what we were up to:

The beginning of the month started with my trip down to San Francisco. It was a blast on all accounts. I got to drive a van, help some people in the city, and see my family. I've already shared a lot about the trip and you can read more about it here.

Then Jessi and I began leading small groups, with some friends, for the freshman high school students at our church. Jessi's group of girls sounds fantastic. They get 6-8 showing up each week and are talking about lies girls tell themselves. The girls have a lot of fun while at the same time holding deep conversations. The intent is to work with these students through their graduation - so for four years. It's very exciting.

I've also already shared about us joining the Mac family. Jessi is loving the Mac life. She's constantly telling me she loves her MacBook. It's actually pretty funny. I also think my iMac is fantastic. For me, the transition to iWork has been an interesting one. I've been playing around and learning a lot. I think Pages is just as good, if not a little better than, as Word. Keynote works differently than PowerPoint, and over time I'll learn all the tricks, but right now they seem to be on par. Though, I'll be honest, I was asked to help with a PowerPoint project and I chickened out - I used PowerPoint on my work computer to make it. Finally, Excel is clearly more powerful than Numbers. Besides the apparent lack of pivot tables, the formatting controls just don't seem as good. How do you copy styles of multiple cells? I can't figure it out. I'm sure over time I'll get more comfortable, but I'm glad I have Excel close by on my work machine for now. I also need to find a good Photoshop replacement. I'm thinking about checking out Pixelmator because it's gotten good reviews.

I turned 27 on October 18th. That was a lot of fun. My parents got me a Superman lunch box (like the one you would expect a 1st grader to be carrying around - yeah, it's awesome). Jessi pampered me for the weekend. I wrote a while back about spending on experiences instead of stuff. So that's what Jessi gave me - a wonderfully relaxing weekend. It was perfect.

Finally, a sports update. This month, my friend David and I received our third stripe in Jiu Jitsu. What does this mean? It means we're one step closer to fulfilling our dreams of getting our blue belts. Assuming we continue at our current pace, we'll be able to test for blue belt in February. When that happens, you won't want to mess with us because we could put you into a vicious arm bar or choke! It's been a blast getting to go with David.

I also wanted to share two items I found while playing on internet this month. The first is a venn diagram showing the relationship between the internet and privacy.

The second is a video clip showing how ink is made. This is different than printer ink, but fascinating to watch. It's also inspiring to see someone else's passion about what they do.

San Francisco Mission Trip

Watching a musician play on the wharf

On October 6th I had the opportunity to head down to San Francisco with some high school students from church for a weekend full of serving. I talked about it earlier, but mostly just reflected on being about to drive the van. This time I'd like to share about the actual trip.

As a leader I mostly hung back, watched and made sure they didn't do any too foolish. That's a relatively new experience for me, but it was good. Also, because of the type of helping we were doing, it wasn't always appropriate to take pictures. So the few I have are mostly of us just hanging out.

Sixteen of us headed down to SF. It took about 10 hours of driving (4 the first night, 6 the next morning). The first day we got there, we were early, so we headed down to the wharf to hang out and let the student buy some souvenirs. What made it super awesome was that it was Fleet Week at the time. So while we were driving across the Bay Bridge there was a jet doing laps and tricks around the city. Once on the wharf I couldn't help but just stare up in the sky in amazement. Then, as we were leaving, the Blue Angels came out and were practicing their moves. It was so much fun to watch!

Playing air hockey in our living area

That night we headed out to the House Of Chicken & Waffles. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised - mixing fried chicken with a waffle is actually pretty good. Afterwards, we headed on a prayer tour. For the tour we drove around while our host told us about the city, it's struggles, it's uniqueness, and how we can pray for it. It was an eye opening experience.

The next morning (Friday) we headed to the SOMA district (South Of Market Street). Lots of Internet start-ups are here because it's close to the financial district, yet is relatively affordable. Being "affordable" also tends attracts many homeless and disadvantaged people. We got to do something called a City Search where we walked around and talked to people on the street. We asked about what they like about SF, what they dislike, what problems they face, etc. It was a great learning experience. The group was also given $2 per person for lunch. We pooled our money so we could get something cheap and then be able to buy food for someone else.

That afternoon we got down to some old fashioned work at the SF Food Bank. We sorted bell peppers and packaged up spaghetti. Their mission is to feed the hungry in SF, and so far they are succeeding.

On Saturday morning we got to serve in Oakland. We headed out to St. Vincent de Paul's where they provide free meals to people in the community. We helped to prepare and serve the meals. I got to walk around the outside and clean. Then I got to stand around and watch for anyone causing a problem (then I would report it and let someone else deal with it).

Taking a break at the SF Food Bank

Saturday afternoon we headed back to SF near the Gold Gate Park. The students were given $20 with a simple task: Find someone in need and figure out a way to meet that need. They could help one person, or many people. For this task I really hung back, so I'm not 100% sure what the students did, but I know they fed a couple people and bought a blank for another person. It was fun watching them as they became more comfortable in the city.

Saturday evening we ate at the Red Sea Restaurant. There you don't use any utensils. You use your hands with food that's on a shared family platter. It's a fun experience! Also, since my parents live in the Bay Area, they were able to come up to Oakland and have dinner with the group. It was so nice being able to see them, even though it was very short.

Sunday was marked by waking up early and driving all the way back to Corvallis. 10 hours of driving after a long weekend wasn't easy, but there were some fun conversation to help pass the time. We hit topics from favorite Disney villain to what the student's dating plans are. It all ended in a game of Uno (no, I didn't play, just listened) and much loud singing.

Mr. Jones standing on Jones St.

It was a great trip and I'm really glad I was able to participate.

Welcome To Mac

Back in March I talked about entering the computer market. Jessi's computer had just crashed and she didn't want to replace the hard drive for a third time. Furthermore, we had always dream of one day switching to Mac. I grew up using Macs and Jessi loves her iPhone - it seemed to make sense.

The original plan was for me to buy a Mac Mini because I already owned a mouse, keyboard & monitor. Then Jessi could use my current laptop until we saved up enough to get her a new computer some time in the future. Funny how plans work out.

In the mean time, we still had to save for the Mini. So, we decided to share my laptop. A laptop, which actually gets used like a desktop: I had an external monitor, keyboard, mouse, webcam, hard drive and a printer hooked up to it. For the amount of time I spent on my computer, I had decided it was worth investing in better hardware to make using it more comfortable. The only downside was the loss of mobility, but after I graduated school my computer hadn't moved anyways.

Anyways, there we were: sharing an older computer. This went as you might expect. My laptop slowed down to a crawl and we constantly gave each other the [loving] stink eye when we came into the office it find it already in use. Then, things really went downhill: The power brick failed.

I don't know why it broke. I hadn't moved the computer in a very long time, but it did. The place where the cord and the brick connect would start sparking and the monitor would flicker. Yeah, not great for many reasons. Jessi made a quick fix that involved blue painter's tap, but was still a fire hazard.

So, here we are: down one computer with another one quickly fading. I still have my work computer, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want me sharing it with Jessi. At this point, we had only been half-heartily saving. I wanted a new computer, but we had always found other excellent things to spend our money on (lots of camping and trips). This time round we got serious.

On one of our trips up to Portland we stopped by the Apple Store to see what our options where. I went in thinking I would get a Mini and Jessi might be interested in the iPad, whiling syncing her files on the Mini. I think we spent 45 minutes of the sales person's time debating over what would be the best solution given our needs. When it was all done, we decide the best options were a MacBook for Jessi and an iMac for me.

Jessi wanted portability, the ability to check email/calendar/facebook, do general web surfing, watch Hulu/Netflix (including the DVDs), and write the occasional document. The iPad actually came at a close second, but Jessi also didn't want to manager her files on my computer and feel like she had to ask permission to get on my computer. I don't blame her.

I wanted to do everything Jessi wanted, plus make complicated spreadsheets, play games, program for the web/iOS, and have plenty of storage (having an external drive as your main drive isn't fun). I needed to increase a few of the specks on the Mini to get everything I wanted. For a couple hundred more, I could get all of it with the iMac. Since it already came with a monitor, webcam, keyboard & mouse, I could sell all my accessories and maybe even come out ahead (I didn't, I just repurposed everything, as you can see in the picture).

So now I knew what we wanted and we began the saving process. Finally, at the end of September we decided to pull the trigger. Shortly after we had our new machines. We've been playing with them ever since. I've mostly been slowly adding my music, pictures and videos. Jessi has been loving her computer. Of course, now I've found myself in a strange position...

When we used Windows machines, Jessi would ask me a question and I knew the answer. Often I didn't even have to look at the screen to tell her what to do. However, whenever she asks me how to do something on her Mac, I honestly don't know. However, and this is what makes Macs so awesome, my answer has been a question back: "How do you think it should work?" Jessi would tell me, and I'd say to give it a try. In EVERY SINGLE CASE, it as worked exactly the way Jessi wanted it to.

Here's a simple example: We wanted to play our Netflix DVD. Jessi asked me how to do that, to which I gave my question back. Jessi said, "I want to put the DVD in and have it start playing." I told her that sounded reasonable and give it a try. She put the DVD in and... wait for it... the movie started playing right away! I half expected to see a window popping up asking to play, but nope, it work exactly how Jessi wanted it to. This is one of many examples (setting our our wireless HP printer was 1,000 times easier than on my HP work laptop!). It's obvious that Apple spends a significant amount of time watching how customers use their computers and then make changes to fit their customers.

So, we're now living in the Mac ecosystem and loving it. Given the amount of time we spend on our computers, it made sense to get something that we would both be happy with - and we are both really happy. Personally, I'm really excited to start diving into the iOS SDK and make a couple fun apps for my iPhone.

One last thought: I now find myself in another strange position. On October 20th Apple will be holding a special event to talk about new things for Mac. I find myself excited about what they have to share, but also hoping it's not too crazy so I don't feel like I have something super old. It'll be fine no matter what. I'm still glad we are in the Mac ecosystem even if it is a little out of date. I mean, I still have a 3G iPhone and it still works just fine.

A Crazy September: Tractors, Cars & A Cabin

I thought September was supposed to be a down month, but as it progressed it quickly become clear that the busy-ness would continue. Rumor has it that October is supposed to be much calmer... we'll see how that goes.

We started off the month in California visiting my family. We celebrated my grandma's 80th birthday with a surprise party. It was great seeing everyone and getting to be with my family for a short while. We definitely need to make it a point to visit more often. I drove down for a week and worked at my parent's kitchen table. Right before labor day, Jessi flew down and we drove back up together. I always forget how wonderful the weather is down there. Now if only they could fix the traffic problem!

We then got to work on re-grading our yard. I already talked a bit about it earlier. The tractor was a blast and the results look good. The grass is growing strong and we've gone back and filled in spots we originally missed with more seed. By the time winter hits, our grass should be looking good. This grass is "self-repairing" which I think is a fancy way of saying it grows like a weed. So hopefully after a full season of growing it'll cover everywhere no matter what.

Right after we finished with the yard, Jessi's car stopped working. That's when I had my man moment and fixed it. That was a definitely learning experience that I hopefully won't have to repeat for a bit (knock on wood). You can read more about it here.

Then, Jessi's dad came to visit for two days. We picked him up at the Portland Airport, visited Willamette University and Honeywood Winery. We also made pizza and delicious hot chocolate for dessert. We really enjoyed seeing him.

Then, we went to Sunriver for a weekend in a cabin. We went with a couple friends and relaxed quite a bit. Jessi and I also hiked up Smith Rock which has an amazing view of the surrounding area. You can read more about it here.

Finally, at the tail end of September I went to Boise, ID for a meeting. It was a fast trip, but well worth it. I got to see my team and learn more about how my job fits in with the larger organization. I must admit, Boise is a pretty nice place. If it didn't take me further way from my family, I might consider living there someday.

This month though, is surprisingly devoid of lots of activities. The only thing we have going on now is a trip I'm taking to San Francisco with our church's high school group (10/6-10/10). We'll be spending a couple days helping the homeless and needy. It should be a memorable experience. I'm particularly excited because this will be the first time I get to drive a church van. For years (since I was in high school) I've been sitting in the back seat wishing I could help with driving. I've reviewed all my driver rules and am ready to get everyone there safely. Please pray for a safe trip and that we touch the hearts of those around us.

That's it this month. Lots and lots of activities. I'll leave you with a short, but awesome video.





A quick insight into the difference between Jessi and I: I watched the video and thought the kick was awesome. Jessi saw the video and only felt sorry for the kid who got kicked. Weird.

Sunriver Weekend Get-Away

Sunriver Cabin

Earlier this year Jessi and I attended an event put on by Friends of the Family Ministries. Friends of the Family Ministries is a non-profit, non-denominational organization committed to building healthy relationships and healthy homes in the Mid-Willamette Valley of Oregon. They provide a variety of services including counseling, workshops and seminars teaching and coaching. It's a really cool organization.

Kitchen Area

During this event they had a silent auction where all the items were donated and the money went to support this organization. One of the items was a weekend trip to Sunriver near Bend, Or. We bid on the item and ended up winning! It was very exciting. It was a 4 bedroom cabin with a hot tub, big-screen TV, kitchen, and plenty of couches. Here's a video of Jessi giving a tour:

Living Room

We invited another couple to join us. The entire weekend was one of relaxing and simply taking it very easy. I accomplished lots of reading, multiple naps and ate really well. We also went on walks, played some board games and watched a couple episodes of CSI (Jessi loves it). All and all, it was relaxing and it sounded like everyone had fun.

Upstairs

On the way home, Jessi and I decided to check out Smith Rock State Park in Terrebonne, OR. We hiked up to the top and then went back down the other side. Here's a video of us at the top:





Lots of rock climbers come here to take on one of the many surfaces available. We saw at least a dozen people making their way up the rock. Here's a fun little video of Jessi climbing down a rock:





Here are more pictures of the trip:

On Top of Smith Rock

Enjoying our view up top

Inside a rock cavern - these are all over!

Looking back up the rock

A beautiful view walking around Smith Rock

Man Moment: Fixing A Car

I got to experience a man moment last week. Jessi's car wouldn't start Monday morning and I was able to fix it by Thursday night.

It's funny, I remember helping my dad fix cars while growing up. I remember there also being more than a couple tense moments either because a screw wouldn't move, we couldn't see properly, something else breaks, or a whole myriad of things not going smoothly. I think being on your back, getting dirty, and having sore arms from cranking on screws leads to much of the frustration. I also clearly remember thinking I didn't want to put myself through that same anguish. Funny how things change when you grow up.

So, Jessi's car wouldn't start. All we heard was a clicking noise. Who knows what that means. This is my first official car problem after all. I try the obvious: grab the jumper cables. Nothing. Next, I switch our car batteries. My car still works, Jessi's still clicks mockingly.

It's at this time we decide to give my dad a call. His prognosis is that it might be the starter. The clicking sound is it engaging, but it's now turning the engine over. I hop online and figure out where it's located: Right under the engine, a little to the passenger side. Oh wait! Before I can even get to the starter I need to figure out how to get under the car. It's at this point that projects start to get out of control...

My home-made ramp

I go to Home Depot and buy a 12'  2"x6". I cut it up into smaller pieces and create a ramp. Of course, Jessi's car can't start, so we need to jack it way up into the air to fit the ramp under the tire. Using her car's jack and my truck's jack we lift the car high enough to fit the ramp under the wheel. We meet our first mile stone.

By the way, notice the straw on the ground? We had just finished our yard project the night before and hadn't even cleaned up yet. Projects are starting to pile on top of each other!

Then Oregon happens. Yep, it started raining. So, we once again got diverted from the project at hand. We grabbed the tarp we put under our tent when camping and throw it over the car. We then use the straps in my truck, which are normally used to tie down objects, to pull the tarp into the air. If you could imagine, it's really starting to look like a work zone. We've got the car in the air and a tarp covering the front of the vehicle. Now we can actually get down to work on taking the starter out.

Taking the starter out is relatively easy. There are only two bolts holding it in, two wires connected to it, and a small plastic case protecting the gears from the elements. If it wasn't for the front axle being the way, this would be a slam dunk. Still, this being our first time ever doing this, it took quite a while to get it off. I might have, possibly, yelled a couple times during the process. During the process I also managed to break my socket wrench. I'll admit it wasn't the highest quality wrench, but I was kind of shocked at how easily I broke it. Though, now I have a brand new one, with a lifetime warranty, so I can't complain too loudly.

The starter

Oh yeah, there were also a couple bolts my sockets couldn't reach so I also got a new 10", 6" and 3" extender set. Now that I think about it, I might have actually come out ahead on this project.

Anyways, we bought a new starter and installed it. I also cleaned off all the ends of the cables. There was a little bit of corrosion around the battery's positive terminal and we wanted to eliminate all possible problems.

Since I had to work during the day, I could only fit in working on the car a couple hours in the morning and then a few hours in the evening before it got too dark. Because Jessi drove my truck to work I also had to wait until the evening before we could get parts. So, it took until Thursday evening before we got her car working again.

It was a great feeling to hear it start up. We were able to diagnose the problem and fix it. Since we have a car maintenance budget, this didn't cost us anything out of ordinary to fix it, which was really nice. I'm sure if we had taken it to a mechanic the total cost wouldn't have been so reasonable (I wouldn't have gotten any new tools). It's now, after being an adult and paying my own bills with my own money, I understand why my dad put up with fixing his cars himself. The difference is material. Cars are just simple enough that with some advice pretty much anyone can fix basic issues.

So I'm now officially in the DIY car fixer-upper club. Depending on how big the next issue is, we'll see if I decide to stay in the club or buy my way out. Right now, after stepping away for a little bit, I feel confident I might be able to handle it. Or, at the very least be able to diagnose the issue with the advice of others like my dad.

Yard Re-Grading Project Completed

A little while back I blogged about starting our re-grading project. I am happy to report after many, many!, hours of work it's completed.

The whole reason for the project revolved around drainage. When we started, the slope of the yard went towards the building. Now the slope falls away from the building, or in some cases is flat, which is still better.

Here's what we ended up doing:

• We didn't water our lawn and let it die. Then we cut it super short so we didn't have grass everywhere.

• We borrowed a friend's rototiller and did a quick first pass over the yard. Then we did a deeper pass along the edges. This took a while.

Rototilling the edges

• Then we rented a tractor. Before we could do that, we had to ask permission from our neighbors to drive the tractor on their land to get to our backyard. It's a farm where the owners rarely ever seem to be around. We wrote a letter explaining who we are and what we wanted to do. A few days later I got a call from a nice gentleman who gave us permission to drive the tractor on the corner of their land.

Running the tractor

• The tractor had a huge rototiller on the back and a bucket on the front. First we rototilled the entire yard. Then I used the front bucket to move the dirt around to change to slope to falling away from the building. This, not surprisingly, is harder than it looks. I have a new found respect for how easy my dad makes it look. Here's a video of Jessi running the tractor:

• Then we used an AC rake (image) my dad let us borrow to smooth out the ground and add the finishing touches.

• We then bought grass seed, a seed spreader, and a banana sprinkler (image). We spread the seed everywhere.

• We also bought straw from a neighboring farm down the road and spread it all over the yard. We read online that using straw can be helpful:

• It protects the seeds from birds
• It stops the seeds from blowing away
• It traps moisture in
• It provides nutrients when it starts to decompose

The straw to cover the seed

• Now we are in the watering stages. Since we're just starting to head into fall & winter, the seed should get enough water. For those dryer days I'll be moving the sprinkler around to make sure the ground stays moist.

Watering the ground

That was our project. It was a lot of work, but hopefully it will result in less water getting under the building. We also bought new downspouts which kicks the water a couple feet away from the building instead of a couple inches. We'll find out this winter if it all worked. Here's another video of us admiring the yard:

Chrome Nanny

I'd like to share one of my new favorite extensions for Chrome: Chrome Nanny. I'm always on the lookout for programs that will help me be more productive, and this one definitely accomplishes that. First, a quick primer on Chrome.

Chrome is a web browser, which is the program used to view web sites on the internet. Windows comes with Internet Explorer and Macs come with Safari built in. Other popular browsers are Firefox and Opera (the Wii uses Opera for it's internet channel). The difference between each of these browsers is the code used to render a web page. Each group has their opinion of the best way to show a webpage. Some, like Chrome, focus on speed. Other might focus on features. Each browser also has add-ons (or extensions), made by third party developers, which you can install to change how the browser works.

I use Chrome for three reasons. First, it's super fast at loading webpages. When I think about how long I spend on the internet, those seconds start to add up. Second, I like the minimalist look of the browser. This lets me see more of the page at once. Third, it has almost every other add-on other browsers have so I'm not missing out on features. So that's Chrome.

One add-on I really like is Chrome Nanny. I was finding that I'd have periods of time when I would spend too much time reading news or goofing off. It wasn't horrible, but I'm constantly looking for ways to improve. Most site blockers, like parental controls, block sites all the time, but I only wanted sites blocked part of the time. When I learned about this add-on, I decided to give it a spin. It does exactly what I want while being relatively easy to use.

In the picture above you can see I have a bunch of sites blocked at the time I took the screen shot. I can specify the day of the week, the time period, and the total amount of time I can visit the sites when they're not blocked. As you can see in the second section, Gmail is allowed but I only have 58 minutes left during this day (I allow myself 1 hour each day). You can also track the amount of time you spend on a site. It's currently empty since I haven't visited any of those sites yet this morning. I track how much time I spend on Pandora, Hulu and Netflix.

As I first mentioned, it's really useful for productivity. I block all entertainment sites from 7am - 10:30am and 11:30am - 4:30pm on week days (yes, I consider news as entertainment). When they're not blocked, I can only spend a cumulative 2 hours on these sites.

I've found that's enough time for me to keep up on news/friends while staying focused when I'm supposed to be working. In the mean time, I do what I'm supposed to do - which is work. I highly recommend trying it out if you find you sometimes get stuck goofing off when you should be working.

Playing Hard in August

And August happened.

The beginning of the month Jessi spent a week in Colorado hanging out with her family. It was a time to simply relax and be around them. The last time we were in Colorado she didn't have enough time with them, and this trip made up for that. She literally arrived without a schedule and spent time hanging around. Jessi said it was very relaxing and a fun time. During the weekend she was gone, so I went over to a friend's house and played games all weekend.

We then participate in a church event called Beach Olympics. The high school and middle school kids are put into 8 teams and taken to the coast. On the beach they compete in 8 different events during the day. The first even was called "China Dig". The goal is to create the longest distance between a hole and a mound of sand. There is also a tug-a-war, a relay, steal the bacon, and an event requiring the kids to run out into the ocean. It's a great outreach event because students invite their friends and at the end of the day we have a BBQ and the gospel is presented to them. The kids love it.

As I've talked about before, Jessi and I started our back yard re-grading project. It is proving to be a long task like I thought, but I think we might actually finish it in a reasonable amount of time. Having Jessi around during the summer gave us a great start.

We also embarked on the second annual Parry-Furlo camping trip. I've set the date in November to remind me to start looking for yurts. They're available 9 months in advance and they're usually taken fast. Hopefully by being on top of it we'll get one for next year.

Finally, Jessi will be starting school today which makes for an official end to her summer. I'm getting to spend it down in California with my family through Labor Day. It's fun to work in the kitchen and just be around family.

As you can tell, we've done a lot of playing this last month. It was a blast, and I must admit I'm ready for a semi-calm and regular fall to start. Though, I've joined a football fantasy league, so I doubt it'll be too relaxing.

With so much going on this month I did manage to find a couple items worth sharing. The first is a guy who is summarizing the Bible one chapter a day via Twitter (@biblesummary). It's fun to see how he summarizes each chapter. He's still only in Genesis, so it'll be easy to catch up.

The second item is this video about PowerPoint:

2nd Annual Parry-Furlo Camping Trip

For the second time in recorded history the Parry and Furlo clans headed over to the Oregon coast for a good ol' fashion camp out (here's the first). This year we went to Beverly Beach State Park which is really close to the ocean. The weather was perfect - light jacket at the campsite and enough wind at the beach to fly a kite.

We arrived Friday night and enjoyed burgers with s'mores for dessert. On Saturday we headed out to the beach. We built sand castles and flew kites. At one point in time we had three kites in the air at the same time. We also played a few board/card games that were a lot of fun. One particularly goofy one is called Fluxx where the rules of the game are constantly changing.

Overall, it was a blast. We had a lot of fun and are looking forward to next years trip. If we're really on top of it, we'll be able to nap a yurt.

Youtube video

Sand Castles

Perfect Marshmallows

Beverly Beach Bridge

Pretty flowers

Enjoying the Camp fire

Yard Re-Grading Project

Jessi and I kicked off our next big project last week. We are going to complete re-grade both our front and back yards. We talked about it back in May, and the time has come to go for it. We've done all the research, figured out all the expenses, and lined up all our tools. The timing has never been great because we've been pretty busy this summer, but Jessi has half a month free, and that's the best opportunity we're going to get.

Cutting the lawn super short

Why are we doing this? Currently the slope of both yards run towards the house. This means that when it rains water goes under the house, instead of away from it. This is not good. The goal of this project is to change the slope of both yards so water runs away from the house. It's not really a cosmetic fix, but a need to keep the property it the best condition possible.

Here's the plan:

1. Cut the grass as low as it will go. We've been neglecting it all summer and it's responded exactly as planned. This should only take 2 hours.
2. Rototill the yards. This is actually a two step process, and will take the longest. A friend from church is letting us borrow his rototiller.
1. We'll do a top level first pass only going down a couple inches. That will break up the crusty dirt on top. This will probably take around 8 hours.
2. We'll do another deep pass going down somewhere between 5-8 inches. This will take longer, possibly 24-30 hours of work.
3. Level the land. We're going to be able to rent a tractor from a near by rental and use that to do the heavy lifting of moving the dirt. The goal, again, is to change the slope of both yards. Hopefully this only takes a full Saturday. I have very limited experience and will have to ask my dad for tips to making it go faster.
4. If needed (I can't tell until we get there), we might need to add a couple truck loads of dirt to build up the side near the house. I'm not sure how long this will take. It'll probably take 4 hours worth of spreading per truckload.
5. Spread new grass seed and water. A couple hours for spreading and intermittent watering. Hopefully it'll be strong enough by the time fall gets here.

With Jessi's help this project shouldn't be too much of a bear. My plan is to work hard for HP in the morning so I can get out between 3-4pm and get a couple good hours of work in. Looking at my calendar, September 11th is my first free weekend so the tractor work might have to wait until then.

iPhone Bible App

One of my favorite iPhone apps is simply named Bible and is created by YouVersion.com. It is exactly what you would imagine - a Bible. I really like it because of a few other features also included.

Translations
Like any good digital Bible, it comes with an astounding number of translations. A few of them are even downloadable so you can read anywhere. Unfortunately, the NIV, my preference, isn't available to download, but steaming (can I use that word for text?) happens fast enough that it isn't an issue.

Search
Another feature all good digital Bibles should have is the ability to search. I remember I being in a Bible study going through Revelations and we were trying to remember where a certain passage was located. Everyone started flipping their pages and I tapped on the search tab. Seconds later I found the exact verse we were looking for. This is indeed a very nice feature.

Reading Plans
I saved the best for last. Our church is currently going through the Life Journal reading plan. It's a year-long plan that goes all the way through the Old Testament and through the New Testament twice. The Bible app offers this reading plan plus loads of others. I even had the choice to set my own speed, like say, take two years instead of one. It's been great to wake up in the morning and tap straight to today's reading plan (ha! pun intended!).

So, that's the Bible app. It's pretty straight forward, and has a few nice features. I wish it had some additional options, like linking to a Concordia or explanations of verses like a study Bible. Still, it's very useful and easy to use.

Spending On Experiences

I've written before our finances and how to manage it. This talks more about the spending side. Jessi and I recently celebrated our second wedding anniversary which started up the discussions of what to get each other. This ultimately lead to a broader discussion about buying gifts.

You see, we find ourselves wanting to get each other something nice, yet don't want to accumulate any more items. I also still have the crazy goal of owning less items the next time we move. The solution we landed upon was buying experiences, instead of stuff, for each other.

For example, Jessi has never had a professional massage. I could get her a certificate to a local place and let her experience it. Or a manicure, pedicure, or some other rejuvenating experience. Going to a concert or taking a small trip are also great options. The point is to create memories and store those instead of simply buying "stuff" and storing those.

I recently read an article in the New York Times called "But Will It Make You Happy?" that has emboldened me even more. The article basically says that spending money on experiences makes you happier.

"New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what they plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to outdo the Joneses."

Very interesting. The reason is because the satisfaction lasts longer.

"One major finding is that spending money for an experience - concert tickets, French lessons, sushi-rolling classes, a hotel room in Monaco - produces longer-lasting satisfaction than spending money on plain old stuff."

In psychology this is called Hedonic Adaptation which means as your situation changes so do your expectation resulting it making it harder and harder for you to be happy. I think it's very similar to the boiling a frog in water metaphor. What this means is that when you buy something, it sits next to you and you eventually become used to it - it's no longer special. However, an experience is here and gone, never giving you a chance to adapt to it, and therefore it remains special much longer.

Timothy Ferriss wrote in his book "The 4-Hour Work Week" about finding happiness (He also talks about taking a media fast which I did, and wrote about). He actual claims that our goal should not be finding happiness, but instead seeking excitement. To me, this falls right in line with buying experiences instead of stuff.

My last observation was of ourselves. We ultimately bought each other "stuff", but we also had an experience. We ate cake and drank champaign while watching our wedding video. When the toasts came up, we toasted with the video. When glasses clinked, we kissed each other. I can hear the romantic "ahh" right now... It was a lot of fun, and that's the story I keep sharing with friends, because in all honestly was the best gift for our anniversary.

So, from now on Jessi and I are going to purposely focus on giving each other experiences instead of just buying material items. It should lead to less clutter, more excitement, and more happiness.

A Crazy July

July was crazy! I don't know what happened. Starting the summer it didn't seem like we would be that busy, but somehow we kept adding things. While talking with Jessi we determined that we didn't work hard this month, but instead played hard.


What We've Been Up To

I already share about our trip to Little Crater Lake and my epic trip to Germany. We also attended the All-Church-Camp-Out at South Beach near Newport, Oregon. It was fun getting to hang out with people from church. Then another weekend my best friend and his fiancé came to Oregon for a wedding and we got to hang out. We again went to Newport and enjoyed the coast. Here's a video of us checking out the ocean.

Jessi and I also taught classes for a summer school program in Corvallis. Jessi taught art and drama. I taught computer classes. Teaching little kids is pretty fun. I showed them how to use PowerPoint (they really like clip art!), Excel, Paint, and Google Earth. At this stage, they're more into graphics than numbers and it was fun showing them how each program allows them to make cool pictures (yes, even Excel).

As an exciting end to the month Jessi and I got to use a stump grinder to get rid of a stump in our yard. That was a fun toy! By the time I finished I was all sweaty and dusty. Here's a video of us setting up.


Something To Think About

I read an interesting article this month about "The 5 Second Rule". The part that I thought was so interesting about the article was that the amount of time food is on the ground it's that important, but instead where you drop your food. Contrary to what I thought, the kitchen is perhaps one of the most dangerous places to pick-up and eat food off the floor. This is because of raw food that could potentially be on the floor for earlier cooking activities. That food, as compared to outside germs, can cause much more serious illnesses. Also, food that falls on the bathroom floor should also have a "Zero Second Rule" because of potential hazardous germs.


Video Fun

One of my favorite video blogs is called "How It Should Have Ended". They take films and take a crack at fixing the ending. Often the result is something hilarious and awesome. Here's an older video, but I recently discovered it. This is how Terminator should have ended:

Apple Is A New Religion?

Every once in a while something comes along that really fires me up. The movie Serendipity is probably the worst of them all. Fifteen minutes into that film and I'm shouting at the TV. I can't stand the irrational decisions they make! Of course, I don't even like the Game of Life because it subtly encourages bad financial decisions. I know, sometimes I just need to relax...

Well, I recently read an article that managed to get me fired up again. This one came from Fox News and was talking about how Apple is like a religion. It was titled "For Apple Followers, It's a Matter of Faith, Academics Say". Specifically, they bring up four reasons that "Apple is the new religion... It's not a matter of rationality, it's a matter of faith." Each reason is, in my opinion, a half truth. On the surface it seems to make sense, but a half truth amounts to nothing more than a full lie. The part that really upsets me is not that he's attacking Apple, but that he's cheapening religion. OK. Let's dive in.

1) "Apple's creation story epitomizes the humble garage origin of its technology -- not unlike the humble manger of Jesus' birth."

That's a little bit of a stretch. What company didn't have humble beginnings? HP also started out in a garage. This is hardly something special. Furthermore, being born in a manger is not what makes Christ special. It's the fact that Christ is God: all powerful, who could have chosen to be born anywhere, yet chose to be born in a manger. I'm pretty sure Apple didn't have the choice to start in any venue they wanted.

2) "Apple CEO Steve Jobs is perceived as a messianic leader who was fired but rose again to save the company."

Really? OK. On the surface I see the similarities, just like Simon in Lord of the Flies. Still, the huge difference is the reason behind the "death". Jobs was let go because he wasn't doing a great job of running the company. When Christ died, he was innocent - he had done nothing wrong. Furthermore, even though Christ was blameless, he took everyone's wrong-doing (aka. sin) with him. So it isn't the act of just dieing and rising up that makes Christ who He is. It's what he did during that time and why he did it.

3) "Apple has traditionally had an evil archenemy, the Devil, as represented first by Microsoft and now by Google."

I don't like this comparison because Christianity isn't about fighting an enemy. Sure, there is the struggle against sin, but that's not the point. The point is to worship God. To focus on the enemy is a mere distraction. Besides, any person or organization that takes a stand will inherently create some "enemies" who disagree. 

4) "Its tablet computer can't play most of the videos on the Web ... its cell phone has trouble making voice calls ... and yet its products are wildly popular... It's not a matter of rationality, it's a matter of faith."

The implication here is huge (and gets to me the most). They're saying that people are buying Apple products irrationally, because they don't work... I guess. This is actually the driving force behind this article. According to the article, the implication is that this is the same way people have an irrational faith in Christ. First, their claim that Apple's products are not great is simply unfounded. Consumers are smart and if the products don't work, people will return them. In 1995 Apple was on its way to bankruptcy because their products weren't great. So people were able to figure it out then, and are even more savvy than ever before. Second, Faith in Christ is also not irrational. I won't go into it here, but instead point to two great articles that show, rationally, how real Christ is. The first is called Lord, Liar, Lunatic and the second is Evidence Of The Resurrection.

Well, I feel better. Apple is not a religion and faith is not irrational.

Germany Trip, An Epic Journey

The start of this month I got a nice surprise: I'd be traveling to Germany during the World Cup finals. I was super excited and I must say, this trip was action packed from take-off to touch down. I've broken this into 4 parts: The trip to Canada... err... Germany (epic, trust me). The work we did. Weekend fun. And the trip home.


The [Epic] Trip to Germany
At 1:30pm pst I left Portland on an 11 hour Delta flight to Amsterdam. From there I would pick up a Holland soccer shirt and catch a short flight to Stuttgart Germany. Oh, if only it was that easy.

While somewhere over the Atlantic ocean my ears popped. I looked around and notice I wasn't the only one having ear issues. Shortly I felt the plane decelerate and start to turn. Then the pilot came over the PA system. "The cabin air pressure valve broke. You might have noticed." As a result we needed to go down in altitude so we all don't pass out from a lack of oxygen. Unfortunately, being that low burns way too much fuel and since we were not quite half way over the Atlantic we needed to turn around.

The Mess Hall

The closest spot for us to land was a little place called Labrador Canada. It has a 4 hour time difference from the West Coast. We landed at 2am (10pm pst) on a military base. Naturally, it took about an hour for them to figure out what to do with us. At 3am (11pm pst) they let us get off the plane and bused us over to the mess hall. I had already made friends with a couple from Romania and they started taking out all sorts of cool instruments. The husband played a little on a handmade wooden clarinet which sounded amazing.

They told us we would be back in the air by 7am, but we quickly discovered the the time had slipped to noon. As a result of the slip in time, they decided to let us officially check into Canada. They brought us into a large warehouse with a couple podiums set up. I didn't get a stamp though which I thought was kind of weird (maybe you only get them when you leave?).

Now fully in Canada by 8am (4am pst) , they let us sleep in some barracks until noon. These were single rooms with shared bathrooms. It was really nice getting to sleep for a few hours on a real bed with blankets instead of on the mess hall's floor. When I went back to the bus at noon (8am pst), I found out that the time had been pushed back to leaving at 3pm. Instead, we went to eat lunch in the mess hall with the other military folks. The food was pretty good. By this time my sleep/awake schedule had already been thrown off.

At 3pm (11am pst) we actually headed over to the little airport to get on the plane that had just arrived to pick us up. Unfortunately, this airport was not really equipped to handle 300+ people all at once. As a result, the check-in took a little longer than normal. Now, I don't know what the big deal was, because I had literally been nowhere except where they bused me, but they were super thorough at security. They padded me down and searched my backpack, and when I say searched my backpack I mean that they took everyone out of it, laid it on the table, and then put it all back into the bag. They did that to me and the 3 people behind me. I couldn't believe it.

Well, as a result of this process it took a while to get everyone on the plane. It seemed like we ready for take off around 6pm (2pm pst... over 24 hours into this trip). Then there seemed to be a long silence when the captain came over the PA system. "Folks, I can't believe I'm telling you this. Words cannot describe how I feel right now. You see, we started at 4:30 this morning out of Atlanta. We knew it was going to be close timing wise to come up and get you. Unfortunately, due to how long it took to get everyone loaded on the plane, we are no long eligible to fly according to FAA guidelines." You could image the murmur that started on the plane. He continued, "The good news is that in about an hour the other pilots will be eligible to fly. The bad news is that they are not trained to fly this airplane." Yeah, we now have a plane that works with no pilots and pilots without a plane that works. He continues, "However, I have heard that they fixed the problem on the original aircraft. So here's what we're going to do: We're going to switch you from this plane back to the original plane and get you back on your way."

By 7pm (3pm pst) we're all getting back on the original plane. The cool part was that while walking to the other plane, the mechanics were hanging out there. We got to talk briefly with them as we passed by. We didn't talk about anything meaningful, but I thought it was cool they were out there. It put a "face to the repair" which was calming. It also told me that the mechanics had enough confidence in their fix that they were willing to stand there and chat with the passengers. One of the mechanics was flown in on a private jet earlier in the day to help with the repair. I bet that cost Delta a little bit of money. Of course, that was probably nothing compared to flying a huge plane and crew to Canada and never actually use it.

At 8pm (4pm pst) we were finally in the air. The rest of the flight was totally fine except for one small issue. The original plane didn't have any food because we ate it all the first time we were in it. The new plane also didn't have any food because they had hurried up trying to make it in time. So, we made the trip over the Atlantic without anything but leftover peanuts and chips.

I had an opportunity to chat with one of the flight attendants while I was waiting for the bathroom and got a little more of the back story. He said the big problem (ie. why it took so long) was that we couldn't land at a big airport. They wanted to go to JFK, but simply didn't have the fuel to make it. Had we gone to JFK, they could have gotten us on another plane with another crew within a couple hours. Instead, they literally had to fly everything in and it just takes too long. Furthermore, from the airline's perspective, since we're already late, it's better to make us more late and keep everyone else on schedule, than make a whole bunch of planes a little late to get us closer to being on time. This makes sense. I'd rather a small subset really angry at me than a bunch of people annoyed with me.

Once we got off the plane at 6:30am (9:30pm pst) in Amsterdam, we had a couple nice surprises. First, they gave us a 10 Euro voucher for food. They also gave us a 5 minute phone call voucher. Finally, they gave us a letter apologizing and saying details would follow explaining that Delta would be giving each of us a free international round trip ticket. Now Jessi and I are starting to figure out where we want to go.

I must say, even though I was delayed a whole day, I was pretty impressed with the way Delta handled the situation. Sure, I wish they could have done better, but it was clear that they tried. The entire time they were nice and as transparent as possible (though I still don't know what happened to that 7am plane...). I actually think I would fly Delta again and still think they're a good company. Of course, that could just be the free ticket talking.


HP Project
Once I actually got to work, it went really well. HP is working on expanding it reporting capabilities for the LaserJet division. I can't go into huge detail, but we're getting better and better at tracking our printers. This team was assembled to create the road map for the project. I got to go because up until now, I was the foremost expert on doing this type of reporting. So I got to sit there, answer questions, bring up potential issues, and help solve problems before they happened.

Overall, I would say it was a great meeting. We accomplished a lot which would not have been possible sitting on the phone for two days. Now the really difficult part has started - actually doing the project. I'm still just a resource, which is really nice. I can see why people try to get into the consulting world.


Weekend Fun
I was able to stay the weekend which was great. A colleague was able to stay through Saturday and I was on my own on Sunday. On Saturday we headed out to check out a couple castles. To get there meant I got to drive on the Autobahn. I was told that it's very similar to driving on freeways in the Bay Area, and that's so true. Most people go around 120kph which is about 75mph. It was like driving on any other highway except I did get passed by a couple Ferrari's - one of which I'm pretty sure was doing double my speed. I can see how the Autobahn would be a lot of fun to drive on with a high performance vehicle, otherwise, it's just like driving normally.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Anyways, we saw the Neuschwanstein castle on Saturday. This castle is famous because it's the castle that Disneyland's castle is based off of. It's really cool looking at it because you can definitely see that they're related. What's also amazing is the surrounding area. This castle was a vacation spot and it definitely felt like it. Check out the picture and the video to see what I mean.

Destroyed Heidelberg Tower

On Sunday I went to the Heidelberg Castle which was actually used to defend the city. It wasn't in nearly as good of shape, but was still amazing to see. I would have like to spend more time just exploring the city because it had an old-time feel.

The First Car

I also went to the Mercedes-Benz Museum on Sunday. That was really fascinating to learn about the history of the car. Both Daimler and Benz started out separately. They independently created an engine which each of them brought to the World Fair in Paris (the event the Eiffel Tower was built for). After that they started competing against each other. It wasn't until after WWI that they merged because they were both in such bad shape financially that the only way they could survive was to combine. Since then, Mercedes-Benz has been a huge player in the car industry.

Finally, I got to watch Germany play Uruguay for 3rd place and Holland play Spain for the World Cup title. Both games were a lot of fun and the Germany celebration was unbelievable. Though, I'm pretty sure they go crazy after any win against anyone any time because soccer is their life. The weird part about it was half time. I noticed that they didn't do a round-up of other sports. Instead, they just talked about regular news. I guess I never thought about it: that a country that only has one main sport wouldn't talk about other sports. You want the sports update? Just wait a couple minutes and watch it.

The Trip Home
After all that, I was ready to go home. The trip had been a blast. Thankfully, the rest of the trip was mostly uneventful. The only hiccup was in Atlanta. There was a lightening storm going on and when that happens everyone has to get off the tarmac. So when we got there, we had to circle for a bit before we could land. Then, when it was time to leave we had to wait again. It was fun once we started boarding though. They really wanted to get us out of there before the lightening started up again and so they really moved us along. You could feel the intensity to move fast and get going. Because of timing issues they didn't wait for other people to come either. So about a quarter of the flight was empty. So I got to stretch out a little bit which was nice.

Overall, it was a great trip and I'm super excited to go back again and visit with Jessi someday.

Analyzing Steps

HP has been sponsoring a shape-up program for the last 12 weeks. We report our steps and minutes exercised onto a online form. There's lots of cool features, but one missing was a way to analyze your activity. So, I exported my data into Excel (and by "export" I mean typed it in myself) and did a little bit of my own analysis. I thought the findings were cool and wanted to share. All the data is in totals (steps & minutes), but you can still do a relative compare since it's all over the same time frame.

First up are my steps by the day of the week.

Since I have a desk job, I wasn't too surprised that my week-day steps were lower. On Tuesdays I mow the lawn which accounts for the slight bump. My goal was to take a minimum of 5,000 steps a day, but aim for 10,000 steps a day. I hit my 5,000 goal every day but Monday and Wednesday. Saturday was the only day I hit my 10,000 goal.

When I exercise, I take my pedometer off. Most of the time (if not all), these are an official sport I'm playing. Throughout this time I played soccer, volleyball, jiu jitsu and softball.

This data was exactly as I expected. I do jiu jitsu and Wednesday, then split between Monday and Thursday. Soccer and softball happens on the weekend. Since I mow the lawn on Tuesday, I don't feel bad that I'm not doing anything. Friday is really my only free night, and Jessi and I often take that night to go on a walk and talk about our week. Over all, I'm satisfied with my exercise level.

I thought it would be interesting to look at it across the month. July isn't done yet, but enough time has passed that I think it's OK to look at.

Looking at both, I don't know what happened in July. I think it has to do with summer. I've been going on trips, which tends to increase my steps and lower my exercise because I'm out of town.

I haven't fully decided yet, but it would be fun to continue to track my data and see how it changes during the year. I need to find an easy way to do it, or it won't happen.

Finally, here's the raw step data over time.

Do you see the huge spike? That's over 26,000 steps! Jessi and I did that while on a camping trip to Little Crater Lake. Otherwise, you can see I really have two types of days. Either I take 5,000 or less steps, or I take around 10,000 steps. What I really need to focus on is moving those lower numbers up just a little bit more. Perhaps I can put some sort of plan together to add 1,000 steps during the week-day.

Here's what my exercise over time looks like. The data is more sparse, but that's because I don't play a sport every day.

90 minutes is jiu jitsu. 60 was soccer and volleyball. 75 is softball. Some of the higher numbers are days when I had multiple activities. Again, I'm pretty happy about this.

So that's it. Pretty cool findings. I need to work on taking more steps during the week-day, especially Monday and Wednesday. I like my level of exercise and need to just keep it going.